Rum ether is a distillate of wood extractives, so named as a result of its purported similarity in flavor to rum; however, despite it being used widely throughout the flavor industry, no work is publicly available that delves into the aroma characteristics of rum ether or explores how they compare to those of rum. With these goals in mind, two popular rums were subjected to aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA) in order to establish the aroma profile for typical gold or white rum. Both commercial and self-prepared samples of rum ether were then subjected to aroma analysis for comparison with these results. Ten commercial samples obtained from a number of flavor companies were analyzed by direct injection gas chromatography-olfactometry (GCO) in order to establish an understanding of traits common to most or all commercial rum ethers. These served as a guide when using scaled-down industrial methods for distillation of two rum ethers. In both, the feasibility was assessed of replacing pyroligneous acid, a traditional rum ether ingredient, with liquid smoke, one that is more widely available and safer for use in food. Self-prepared ethers were found to be comparable to commercial samples despite this ingredient substitution and underwent AEDA for more direct comparison with rum. Ultimately, a number of compounds, including ethyl isobutyrate, ethyl butyrate, and guaiacol, were found to be essential to both rum and rum ether. Not all compounds were aligned: isoamyl alcohol and â-damascenone were found to be extremely important in rum but not present in rum ether, while ethyl acrylate and ethyl 3-butenoate were important rum ether aroma contributors that are nowhere to be found in rum. Rum ether therefore currently possesses a solid foundation of rum-like odor notes, especially wood extractives and short-chain esters, but could benefit from the addition of certain fermentation-derived compounds and the removal of several unpleasant off-notes. Methods for eliminating these discrepancies could be the basis for much future work.